With the release of the Oregon Department of Energy (ODOE)’s new Oregon Energy Strategy, the state now has a roadmap for a clean, resilient and more affordable future. Energy Trust of Oregon’s strategy for the next five years – outlined in our 2025-2030 Strategic Plan and newly published 2026-2030 multiyear and equity plans – is aligned with the Oregon Energy Strategy, sharing an emphasis on energy efficiency, renewable generation, decarbonization and equitable access to clean energy solutions.
The Oregon Energy Strategy lays out a plan for how Oregon can meet its energy policy objectives while maintaining an affordable, reliable system, and Energy Trust is committed to helping the state achieve these goals while making clean energy more accessible for customers and communities. Energy efficiency and renewable energy like solar are the most affordable and beneficial means to achieve greenhouse gas reduction goals.
The state has set ambitious emission reduction goals, such as an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, committing to 100% clean electricity by 2040, and enforcing the Climate Protection Program, which applies to large fuel suppliers and natural gas utilities and requires fossil fuel reductions across transportation, industry and buildings. Under the Climate Protection Program, the goal is a 50% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 and 90% by 2050.
Developed with the guidance of energy leaders, communities and Oregonians across the state, the Oregon Energy Strategy provides a detailed plan on how the state will meet growing energy needs while cutting emissions, keeping costs manageable and making sure all communities benefit. The strategy focuses on five pathways, as well as policies and potential actions to meet the state’s energy policy objectives and greenhouse gas emission reduction targets while ensuring reliability and affordability. Advancing activities in these pathways – which include energy efficiency, clean electricity and resilience – means cleaner air, lower costs and more access to clean energy for Oregonians.
“This Oregon Energy Strategy belongs to the people of Oregon,” said ODOE Director Janine Benner in a press release. “Oregon’s energy landscape is changing, and we have new challenges like increasing demand, higher costs, resilience and reliability, a need for more transmission, and others. We hope Oregonians see themselves in the transition to a clean energy future and that the pathways, policies, and actions outlined in this strategy will help us get there.”
Energy Trust offered input into this statewide strategy through participation in an ODOE advisory council and a work group focused on building efficiency, electrification and distributed energy resources, as well as by submitting comments on the draft strategy. Energy Trust will be a partner in its implementation through ongoing collaboration with ODOE, other state agencies and utilities.
The Oregon Energy Strategy also calls for near-term policy action to scale up incentives and financing to help more Oregonians gain access to clean energy solutions through weatherization programs, incentivizing heat pumps, investing in multimodal transit and enabling strategic electrification.
Extreme weather events and disasters pose challenges to the grid and communities, making resilience essential. To strengthen resilience, the strategy calls for coordination between electricity and natural gas utilities; funding resilience investments in weatherization, batteries and distributed energy; and planning for system vulnerabilities.
Following publication of the Oregon Energy Strategy, Governor Tina Kotek signed Executive Order 25-29 directing state agencies to put the Oregon Energy Strategy in action. The order seeks to accelerate the process on carbon pollution reductions by removing barriers to clean energy investments.